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The True Cost of Waiting to Buy A Home in Sacramento
The true cost of waiting to buy a home in Sacramento, as written by our fantastic lender, Dan Tharp, with Guild Mortgage., Enjoy. — JaCi Wallace.
I know shopping for a home today is hard work and very frustrating at times. Inventory is low, and demand is high – It may take many offers, and a few tension-filled bidding sessions, before you land that home. Buyers can quickly get discouraged and say, “I am tired of this. I am just going sign a new rental lease instead and try this again in 6 months to a year”.
Sacramento County forecasted appreciation %
Here’s the thing: you can take some time off, but the market isn’t taking time off, even with COVID. For example, in Sacramento County, the forecasted appreciation is 4.22% in just the next six months; let’s quantify that. A home worth $442,000 today would be worth $18,637 more in 6 months. Being careful with this prediction, even if we cut this estimate of appreciation in half to 2.4%, waiting would require you to get a bigger loan, and pay more every month, or put more money down.
The effects of COVID
I think the effects of COVID will continue to ripple through our economy in ways we can’t even imagine. If home prices do dip temporarily, the economic value to a person of owning their own home, and taking advantage of today’s super-low 30-year fixed rates, will put them in a much healthier long term financial position than choosing to rent for the next several years. The key is for people to buy homes that they enjoy living in, with a long term outlook. A short term paper loss is nothing compared to the long term economic benefits a homeowner would receive.
And what about interest rates?
Should you wait until rates go down further? No, the monthly savings with a lower rate are nice but small compared to the missed appreciation and amortization. It could take longer for the incremental savings of a lower rate in the future to make up for the money lost by waiting. Should rates drop significantly, you can always refinance in the future. Stick with it, keep shopping, and you will find something!
And remember, there’s no guarantee that rates head even lower. It’s essential to weigh the individual options for you. To avoid the true cost of waiting to buy a home in Sacramento, call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with RE/MAX Gold. We can be reached at 916-233-6759. To obtain your financing with a true professional, call Dan Tharp with Guild Mortgage. Contact info below.
Sampino’s Deli: a Gem in Midtown Sacramento
Sampino’s Towne Foods is a fabulous gem tucked into a Midtown Sacramento strip center off 16th Street.
When I couldn’t persuade my husband to bring me a sandwich, he suggested I walk over to Sampino’s, an Italian deli and restaurant, in Midtown to grab lunch. I didn’t have a coat, and I didn’t have my car because I wasn’t planning on going anywhere, except to focus on my work at hand, namely selling real estate in Sacramento. We had just returned from driving my husband’s car to his medical appointment after my car suddenly refused to start. The upside is it happened when my car was in my garage in Land Park. The downside was I don’t have Mercedes Roadside Assistance anymore. I use State Farm now because I don’t own a Mercedes.
That’s gonna change, though, when my new Mercedes GLA arrives next month, which is a far cry from my first vehicles, like that 1960 Chevy station wagon I eventually ended up pushing across Colfax Avenue in Denver and abandoning. Back in the day, if my car wouldn’t start, I’d fall into a near heart attack. Worried it would be horribly expensive to fix and where would I find the money? How would I get to work? Extreme panic, end of the world. Fast forward 40 years and now if it never started again, I’d just buy a new car. Funny how our perceptions change.
The Roadside Assistance guy decided it was my battery, and he didn’t need to tow, so he gave me a jump start. I gave him my business card because he’s trying to buy a home in Sacramento and sounds like he is going about it all wrong. Then I immediately drove without my coat to Midtown Autoworks to see Niko. $350 for a new battery. The last time I bought a new battery, it cost me $59, I said. It wasn’t even the most expensive Porsche battery I could get. Niko had to go get it though. So I waited.
No breakfast, and now it was approaching lunch. Tengo hambre. I texted my husband, but he was too busy for lunch and, like I said, he could not bring me a sandwich. He found Sampino’s deli and sent me the address. It was only a block from Midtown Autoworks; I could walk. And yikes, what a gem! This place is off 16th Street in a strip center way at the end. I don’t know how many times I’ve driven past without noticing it. It’s as authentic as Italian gets.
Even though I screwed up and went to the cash register to order lunch instead of the spot I was supposed to be at, the woman behind the counter was very helpful. Everything looked so delicious in the display case that I also ordered a caprese salad to take home for dinner. When you’re hambriento, everything in the display case exudes an extra glow. Particularly enticing; I was mesmerized. Especially the Timbale. Yowza. But I stuck with the steak salad, punctuated by bits of candied cranberries and greens tossed with aged balsamic. I didn’t care how long it took to fix my car. I was at Sampino’s. 1619 F Street, Sacramento.
Holiday Etiquette to Buy a Home in Sacramento
The Holidays are still a good time to buy a home in Sacramento.
Although the real estate activity dies down a bit at this time of year in Sacramento, which is what allows this Sacramento Realtor the luxury of working from Hawaii, people are still interested in pursuing real estate. There might not be an urgency to buy a home in Sacramento, yet that doesn’t stop buyers from looking for a home. If they have a little free time in their holiday schedule, buyers are more than happy to tour homes.
Besides, you never know, even though the intent might be to simply check out homes for sale in Sacramento with no real inclination to buy a home in Sacramento, that possibility is not entirely ruled out. If a buyer was to stumble into the perfect home, well, just about anything can happen and does. Suddenly, the buyer might be very interested in pursuing an offer.
I know some agents are very stringent about how and when they show homes. They have their own rules such as the buyer must have a preapproval letter. In part that’s because the buyer can’t make an offer without a preapproval letter. Also, because the agent knows the buyer is serious. That brings up the question of whether an agent should show a home if a buyer is not preapproved.
That’s a personal question that I can’t answer for every agent, but in my own mind, I say it is OK. Not every buyer wants her credit pulled if she is not ready to buy a home in Sacramento. As long as the buyer has the ability to quickly obtain a preapproval letter, say, within 24 hours, I would show homes to a buyer. In addition, this more relaxed time of year offers the perfect opportunity to show a buyer around town, drive different neighborhoods and point out the amenities, and when that buyer is ready to buy, even if it’s next year or next spring, we as agents hope the buyer will call us.
It is not a time to call an agent and ask to see homes if your own agent is out of town because that kind of unethical behavior is frowned upon. That would be taking advantage of an agent and asking that agent to invest time and energy in you, to work without any form of compensation, and that goes for calling listing agents, too. Most listing agents would expect to represent a buyer.
Your best plan of action is to call your agent, even if you know that agent is on vacation, that agent will arrange for another agent to help you. If your agent is non-responsive, call the broker of that real estate office.
The Worst Ways to Buy a Sacramento Home
Have you ever wondered what are the worst ways to buy a Sacramento home? I swear, there are times when I see flashes of 25 years ago watching buyers in Sacramento hunt for a home to buy. It makes me wonder why they waste the effort. I suppose part of it is due to the low inventory of homes for sale in Sacramento, and those slim pickings can make some buyers feel desperate. The other reason is probably due to the fact that some buyers think they know better than those of us in the industry, which means they probably don’t hold much respect for real estate agents, but some people are like that.
Every so often I will get a phone call from a buyer who starts out by explaining they are not interested in talking to me unless I am the listing agent. That’s code for they hope that by “offering me the opportunity” to work in dual agency (double-end the commission) that I’ll get them a better deal by sacrificing my integrity and ethics. Probably because that’s what they would do, but they don’t realize that I am not them.
Money is not my motivator.
They think that agents will do whatever is necessary to put a deal together because we’re all starving to death or maybe we’re just scumbags, I’m not sure. I refer these callers to my team members to show. But I don’t tell my sellers what I suspect these guys are up to unless I receive an offer, no sense in upsetting them. It does put me on notice, though. And that’s not a very good way to look for a home to buy in Sacramento.
Although maybe the #1 worst way to look for a home to buy is to drive around town calling on For Sale signs. I get a lot of those, and then buyers are ticked off when they find out the home is pending and demand to know why there are no pending signs on the For Sale sign. They don’t realize that all listings are available online these days. Hello, 2014. If they don’t look at an online feed from MLS, they’ll never know whether a listing is pending or not. About half the time the home is pending before the poor sign post company can even pound a post into the ground.
If you’re a buyer in Sacramento trying to buy a home, your best bet is to ask a buyer’s agent to work with you. You’ll get the best representation, the most attention and direct service, and you won’t be driving around calling listing agents to find out the home is already sold. ‘Course, in retrospect, the agents would have to answer their phone.
For Those Who Have Shunned a Bourbon Whiskey
I have been drinking bourbon whiskey. That’s not an excuse for my behavior, btw, it’s simply a new thing in my life. How I got to be over 60 years of age and had never developed an affinity for bourbon is beyond me. Especially when I spent the last 8 years negotiating and selling short sales in Sacramento–because if short sales don’t push you over the edge, I don’t know what will. I became curious about bourbon whiskey after reading about bourbon in Mental Floss. Thought I’d give it a try to determine my reaction.
Back in the old days, and by old days, I mean in the early 1970s in Nederland, Colorado, my friends used to drink Jack Daniel off the bar, right after they snorted some Peppermint Schnapps off the bar. We didn’t give much thought to sanitary conditions in those days. Besides, the alcohol content killed all bacteria, we decided.
I have concluded that I should have given bourbon a chance all those years ago when I regularly stayed out late to party and now can’t stay up past 9 PM. My partying days now are a thing of the past. But no, I had turned up my nose at any type of whiskey. It choked. It burned. It stung. It was awful, was my deduction. I was such a kid. A neophyte.
Bourbon, in case you didn’t know, is made from corn, at least 51% corn in the ingredients. And it must be aged in a charred oak barrel. The best authentic place to get your bourbon from is Kentucky. You sip it slowly. I read that Allison Janey credited a crew hand for giving her a shot of bourbon before she shot those nude sex scenes with Beau Bridges in Masters of Sex. I can see how it would help.
Bourbon is creamy and smooth with just a little bit of bite. It changes intensity when ice cubes melt in the glass and morphs into a different drink. If you haven’t tried bourbon lately, I encourage you to try it. Open up your horizons. Especially if you’re in escrow to buy a home in Sacramento, because these are trying times we are forced to struggle with.
Or go to Ella Dining downtown Sacramento. Last month they celebrated bourbon and bacon — much as I love bacon, I’m not game for stuffing large quantities of bacon past my lips. But in August, they switched to lobster, and a girl can’t turn that down a chilled whole Maine lobster. Plus, you haven’t lived, trust me, until you sip a Manhattan at Ella: made with its own two-barrel blend of Kentucky bourbon, sweet vermouth and bitters. Then select one of the excellent bourbon flight offerings, small 1/2 ounce samples.
Make sure to bring along a designated driver and whatever happens, don’t end up like Sen. Ben Hueso.
